Obama to probe response to mass killings

ACCRA, Ghana, July 12 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama said he has ordered a probe of the U.S. response to mass killings of Taliban prisoners of war by forces of an American-backed warlord.

In an interview with CNN, Obama said the investigation would focus on reports the Bush administration resisted calls for a probe into the deaths of as many as 2,000 Taliban POWs in 2001, during the early days of the war in Afghanistan.

"The indications that this had not been properly investigated just recently was brought to my attention," Obama said during his visit to Ghana. "So what I've asked my national security team to do is to collect the facts for me that are known, and we'll probably make a decision in terms of how to approach it once we have all of the facts gathered up."

The Taliban prisoners had surrendered to the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in late 2001, CNN said on its Web site Sunday night.

The New York Times, citing government officials and human-rights organizations, reported Saturday that Bush administration officials repeatedly discouraged efforts to investigate the mass killings.

The Times said officials from the FBI, the State Department, the Red Cross and human rights organizations had sought an investigation into the deaths but Bush administration officials were reluctant to investigate because the warlord, Abdul Rashid Dostum, was on the payroll of the CIA and his militia had worked closely with U.S. Special Forces in 2001.

Sources told the Times U.S. officials also expressed concern about undermining the government of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, for whom Dostum served as a defense official.